Interview: Juvenile Talks About Cruising In His Panamera, Dropping A New Album

Juvenile's not so juvenile anymore. He has been on the rap scene since the mid-'90s, and the various cars in his driveway over the years bear witness to the fact that he’s seen his share of ups and downs. His new album, Rejuvenation, is about to drop. He says it’s a new phase—more mature, more grown-up. Just like his current choice in rides.

What are you driving?I’m into a new Porsche right now, the Porsche Panamera. It’s just a sweet car. I’m all about moving fast. I like big cars with nice engines. That’s my choice.

What did you drive before the Porsche?I had a lot of old schools, a lot of classics. Shit, the list is long.

Are you a car guy?I used to be a big car guy. I splurge here and there. I’m not making the same amount of money that I used to make to be buying all of those cars. I’ve gotta hold onto what I’ve got.

What do you think about the current hip-hop scene and the younger artists coming up?I think some of these cats are starting to rap a little bit more. Because if you go back, like, three years, there was a lot of BS out here, you know. But now what I’m seeing is something to be getting a little bit more back into the rap, you know, the MCing. So I think that the industry is going to change. It’s always going to change, because you’ve got a lot of young cats coming into the game that want to bring their own sound and their own flavor to the game. And maybe it’s something that everybody don’t agree with. But I’m cool with it. Because I look at it as it’s a bunch of cats that’s doing something other than doing something wrong. You feel me? And making money. So I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I just look at it as what people want to hear, you know. When you go in the clubs and hear the DJ playing it and people getting a good reaction from it, it’s what the people want to hear. And if it wasn’t for that, I don’t think the songs would survive.

What do you listen to when you drive?Everything. I’m a radio cat. I used to be a cat who put in one CD and bumped it all day. But I like to keep up with what’s going on right now. So I just keep the radio on as much as possible, get my little BET on when I’m in the studio. I like everything. And things change when you got kids, you know, and you got one kid that listens to this kind of music and you got another kid that listens to another kind of music. You kind of start spreading yourself a little thin and getting into all your kids’ world and also their kind of music. So I’m kind of entertained by a large genre of music.

How many kids do you have?I got four.

Do they all fit in the Panamera?Nah, nah, nah, nah. We got the truck for that. I got a big, I got a ‘Burban, you know, I got a big black Suburban. It holds a ton of stuff, you know, get everybody in there.

You mentioned being into classic cars. Is there a big scene in Louisiana?You know what got me into that? My son, because he’s got a glass house [an old-school Chevy made from 1971 to 1976]. I don’t know what year it is. He just fixed up an old-school glass house, and it’s off the chain. I already was into old-school cars. That made me even more into it. So now I think I’m going to be collecting a few.

Any cars you’re considering buying?I want a GTO. That’s really what I’m after right now. I want a couple real, real old-school Chevys, if possible. Trying to get my hand on an Impala or something in the ‘70s or the ‘60s. That would be beautiful too.

Are you a cruising type of guy, or do you like to tear it up?Nah, I’m a cruiser. When I’m on the highway, like if I’m going to do a four-hour, five-hour drive, something like that, I like to be able to move faster. I like to be able to get in and out of traffic when I need to. You can’t do that without power.

The Panamera is supposed to be the practical Porsche. Is it?It’s alright. It’s a different kind of ride. It’s not that rough ride. If you know anything about Porsches and 911s, it’s really generally a racecar. And it’s not the best ride in the world when you’re in a city area, where you got bumps and lumps. So, you know, this car is kind of like different from that, and I think it’s more fitting for me.

What do you remember about your first car?BMW 735i was my first car. One from the '80s. I’m going to say I was 16 or 17.

Was it new when you got it?Yeah. You know what I like about it? I had Momos on it, 17-inch Momos. Real clean.

Were you into cars as a kid, or were any of your relatives?My pops, man. My pops was into Chevys. He had all kinds of Chevys. He did a couple Pontiacs too, my pops. He was a car-head.

What new music projects are you working on?I got my new album coming out. The name of it is Rejuvenation. [Release date: Dec. 13.]

What can we expect from that album?Oh man, just Juvi. Juvi at an older age, you know, not the young version, the older version. And I got a new single coming out [featuring Rick Ross]. That’s what I’m trying to put out, awareness for that. It just came out on the Internet, but we’re about to start pushing it to radio. It's called “Power.”